Nonprofits and corporations team for the environment

trash pick up in the Buffalo Bayou Parnership's Clean and Green program.

trash pick up in the Buffalo Bayou Parnership's Clean and Green program.

Photo: Buffalo Bayou Partnership

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Chevron employee volunteers

Chevron employee volunteers

Photo: Chevron

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Chevron employee volunteers

Chevron employee volunteers

Photo: Chevron

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Volunteers participate in a Marsh Mania event at the Bay Wetlands Restoration project sponsored by the Galveston Bay Foundation.

Volunteers participate in a Marsh Mania event at the Bay Wetlands Restoration project sponsored by the Galveston Bay Foundation.

Photo: Bob Dempsey

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Volunteers participating in a Marsh Mania event at Clear Lake Forest Park. The effort is spearheaded by the Galveston Bay Foundation.

Volunteers participating in a Marsh Mania event at Clear Lake Forest Park. The effort is spearheaded by the Galveston Bay Foundation.

Photo: Galveston Bay Foundation

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Trash pickup is part of the Buffalo Bayou Parnership's Clean and Green program.

Trash pickup is part of the Buffalo Bayou Parnership's Clean and Green program.

Photo: Buffalo Bayou Partnership

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Chevron employees have helped plant more than 100,000 trees for Trees of Houston.

Chevron employees have helped plant more than 100,000 trees for Trees of Houston.

Photo: Chevron

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Volunteers participate in a Marsh Mania event at Clear Lake Forest Park. The effort is spearheaded by the Galveston Bay Foundation.

Volunteers participate in a Marsh Mania event at Clear Lake Forest Park. The effort is spearheaded by the Galveston Bay Foundation.

Photo: Galveston Bay Foundation

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Joel Powell pulls a tire from Japhet Creek as he and other volunteers participate in the Japhet Creek Restoration Project. Since 2009, more than 1,100 people have volunteered their time to restore the waterway. less

Joel Powell pulls a tire from Japhet Creek as he and other volunteers participate in the Japhet Creek Restoration Project. Since 2009, more than 1,100 people have volunteered their time to restore the ... more

But green-minded nonprofit organizations and corporations are working together to protect and restore the environment. The oil-and-gas industry is a major partner in this effort, donating dollars and providing volunteers for the cause. As a result, bayous and beaches are cleaner; marshes are being replanted. Green spaces are expanding, and lost trees are being replaced.

"We are strong environmental stewards because it is the right thing to do and is part of our value system," says Joni Baird, who oversees public and governmental affairs for Chevron's Houston office. "By partnering with nonprofits, we can work together to solve issues of local concern."

Commerce-conservation partnerships have produced these successful projects:

More Information

How to help

March 16

Buffalo Bayou Regatta

1 Volunteers are needed to help with registration and parking for March 16 event. Morning and afternoon shifts available. Contact the Buffalo Bayou Partnership at 713-752-0314 or buffalobayou.org.

Trash Bash

1 Join volunteers as they clean up the Armand Bayou watershed on March 23. Contact the Galveston Bay Foundation at 281-332-3381 or galvbay.org.

Pay it forward

With each downpour, a tidal wave of trash gushes through Houston's storm sewers into Buffalo Bayou and courses through the Ship Channel Turning Basin toward Galveston Bay. In its wake, a trail of aluminum cans, Styrofoam cups and other litter floats on the water and clings to bank-side vegetation.

It's a nasty, recurring sight. But for a decade, the nonprofit Buffalo Bayou Partnership has overseen an effort that's collected approximately 13,550 cubic yards, or 1,129 dump trucks, of yuck. A garbage-guzzling skimmer boat and the Shell-sponsored Clean and Green program's foot patrol of community service workers do the dirty work. They remove garbage and plants such as giant ragweed, tallow and chinaberry. They also plant native vegetation to improve habitats and biodiversity along the bayou.

"Shell partners with leading environmental organizations that promote sustainable communities and encourage healthy lifestyles among our employees and families," says Frazier K. Wilson, vice president of Shell Oil Company Foundation and manager of social investment for Shell.

"It's been a very successful program, and last year we expanded again. We can have it totally cleaned, then there's heavy rain and another round of trash," she says.

But cleanup efforts have paid off, and water quality has improved. "What was the Reeking Regatta is now the Buffalo Bayou Regatta," Olson says about the annual canoe and kayak trek along the waterway.

ConocoPhillips, EnerVest, ExxonMobil and Apache also have provided financial and volunteer support for Buffalo Bayou Partnership. And thousands of families enjoy environmental activities during KBR Kids Day on Buffalo Bayou, Olson says.

For 25 years, the Galveston Bay Foundation has focused on preserving and improving the bay's natural resources.

"It all takes volunteers and funding, and this is where corporate partners come in," president Robert Stokes says.

In 14 years, 7,000 volunteers have restored 200 wetland acres during the foundation's Marsh Mania events. Hundreds more muddy volunteers plant grasses during Mini Marsh Mania projects. The foundation staff teaches volunteers how to plant Spartina alterniflora, the dominant marsh grass, which is donated by an NRG-owned nursery.

Restoration is critical because more than 35,000 acres have been lost in 60 years, Stokes says. Subsidence is a major factor: Grass grows at a certain level, then drowns as the ground sinks. Restoration projects are built higher and are designed to last for 20 to 30 years, he says.

The Shell-sponsored Bike Around the Bay is an educational 180-mile trip that gives participants a close-up opportunity to understand the bay, Stokes says. Shell volunteers also plant marsh grasses.

Aramco Services supports the organization's oyster gardening program, which focuses on restoring reefs destroyed during Hurricane Ike. Volunteers place reclaimed oysters in mesh bags then hang the bags from piers. Young oysters, called spat, attach to the bagged shells and develop. They are later moved to restoration sites.

Thousands of Galveston Bay Foundation volunteers participate in the annual Trash Bash, a coordinated one-day cleanup along several area waterways.

Healthy habitats

Hermann Park is a 445-acre home to many attractions. The Hermann Park Conservancy depends heavily on volunteers who log 20,000 hours each year, executive director Doreen Stoller says. Corporate groups clocked 700 of those hours in 2012.

She's grateful. "We don't have any tax or tourist money, so everything we do is 100 percent donation funded."

Planting trees always is popular, and the conservancy gets a number of corporate gifts from companies such as Shell for reforestation. "Planting trees serves a number of environmental goals (from cleaning the air to reducing the urban heat-island effect), and many energy companies direct some portion of their giving to environmental projects," Stoller says.

Shell and Exxon support a college-intern program that inventories trees with a GPS system.

"We also are trying to keep the habitats healthy on the migratory bird islands in McGovern Lake, and corporate groups help us remove invasive species there and elsewhere," she says.

Corporate groups and students help with prairie restoration in the park, Stoller says. Waste Management donated funds to put in a pocket of prairie habitation, and schoolchildren made seed balls to sow the area with sustainable native grasses. Seed balls are an ancient Japanese rice-farming technique of sowing seed without tilling the ground, says Diane Kerr, a volunteer program manager and Master Naturalist. Volunteers press native grass seeds into nickel-size clay and soil balls, which protect the seeds from birds and storms until they germinate.

Tree friends

The Apache Corporation reached a milestone during January's Houston Arbor Day celebration. The company planted its 3 millionth tree - a 15-foot-tall live oak - in drought-ravaged Memorial Park as part of its multistate program. Apache employees and their families celebrated by planting even more trees.

Last year, $135,000 was earmarked from Apache-sponsored bike and running events for city parks. The company also donated 50,000 trees to the city's parks department. Apache also has pledged up to 10,000 trees to be planted along the bayou from Shepherd to Sabine, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership's Trudi Smith says.

"Employee involvement in tree projects is a big part of what we do," says Obie O'Brien, who oversees Apache's outreach programs and is vice president of government affairs. "But employees also are involved in beach cleanup.

"Environmental stewardship, frankly, is part of our culture," O'Brien says. "It's not just our philanthropy. We like to think we practice what we preach."

Running for shade

Keith Cunningham, recent recipient of the Memorial Park Conservancy's Ima Hogg Service Award, is one of many Chevron employees who volunteer in Memorial Park. Members of the company's running club haul away debris and plant trees.

Chevron's urban reforestation project involves teamwork with Trees for Houston and Texas A&M Forest Service. Chevron volunteers pot and grow forest service seedlings on the company's tree farm in Humble, then donate 10- to 15-foot trees back to the community with the help of Trees for Houston. Hundreds of volunteers have planted more than 100,000 trees.

Company volunteers also are busy with other projects, including tending the grounds at the Bering Omega's residential hospice and the AIDS Foundation House vegetable garden.

"We volunteered more than 30,000 hours in 2012," Baird says.

Trailblazing

Hurricane Ike and the historic drought dealt the 155-acre Houston Arboretum and Nature Center a double blow. Heavy equipment from Mustang Cat, energy and other corporate gifts, and a corps of volunteers are helping resurface trails, restore habitats, renovate boardwalks and plant trees.

"Approximately 160 oil-and-gas individual volunteers from more than a dozen local companies put in 550 volunteer hours since March 2012," arboretum volunteer manager Lynne Hester says. "They do team building here."

"The arboretum is a popular venue for corporate groups because of the atmosphere and because they're giving back to the environment," Hester says. "For many, it's the first time coming to the arboretum. But many group volunteers now come as individuals. It benefits everyone: us, the community and the volunteer."

Young conservationists

Marathon Oil earned the Keep Houston Beautiful Mayor's Proud Partner Award in 2012 for its environmental efforts. The company-sponsored Energy Conservation Club at the Houston Museum of Natural Science is geared toward engaging children in energy conservation.

Greener future

Houston-area green space has jumped 18 percent in the past eight years, to 33,600 acres.

Houston Parks Board development coordinator Deborah Rule is excited about what's to come: the Bayou Greenways Initiative, an approximately $480 million project that will be tackled by public and private stakeholders.

The board will assume long-term stewardship of the project that will add 4,000 acres of green space and 300 miles of continuous hike and bike trails. Fundraising is under way.

"The next seven years will transform the city we love into one of the best quality-of-life cities in the nation," Rule says.

Hermann Park Conservancy's Stoller has similar thoughts.

"Ten years ago, people never thought of Houston as a pretty place to be. But with Buffalo Bayou destinations, Discovery Green and our parks, I think people will start thinking of Houston as a pretty place."